As previously mentioned, we are a small group of local citizens that have come together to correct some misinformation that has been posted in blogs here on Patch.
This blog post is in response to a blog post in September titled “Suspicious Non-Emergent Medical Transport Cost County Tax Payers.”
We found this blog post to be lacking in detail, considering the use of the word “suspicious” in the title of the post. The calculations were based on a false premise and the author’s claim that the “county could not provide a breakdown of how many people are using this tax payer funded service every day, every three days, etc.” to be nothing less than a lie or a failure to adequately, or maybe politely, request the information. This claim was repeated by the author at least three more times in the comment section of the post.
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We made a request to Washington County for information and the numbers for October 2013 were provided to us in ten business days.
Federal law requires Minnesota to provide Medicaid recipients with medical nonemergency transportation assistance to the nearest qualified provider for covered services, using the least expensive type of appropriate transportation. The NEMT program’s purpose is to keep overall medical costs down by enabling recipients to maintain their regular appointments and avoid more expensive inpatient treatment. In 2009, through Minnesota state legislation, the non-emergency transportation responsibility was passed from the state to the counties.
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We were told by an analyst for Washington County Community Services that “there are many different types of transportation that can be provided through this program; stretcher, wheel chair lift, sedan, taxi, public transportation, volunteer drivers, and personal mileage reimbursement are the majority of them. There is a Level of Need assessment that is completed to determine what is the most appropriate type of transportation to meet each person’s needs.”
“The payment for these services comes from the State (50%) and Federal (50%) funds. Washington County does not pay for the actual ride, but does pay an administrative fee to the ride coordinator for providing this service.”
As we highlighted in our previous post, the author of the blog noted the number of trips per month, divided by the number of unique users and again divided that by the number of days in a month. He came to the false conclusion that “231 people are all having a non-emergent medical trip paid for by the tax payers every three days.” Either he didn’t investigate thoroughly enough to find that a “trip leg” is defined as a one-way trip, or he failed to disclose this because it diminished his claim that the numbers were suspicious. The numbers provided to us by Washington County state that there were 2,235 trip legs in Washington County in October, provided to 198 unique users. This means that, if averaged, each user was provided 5.64 round trips in October or about 1.3 round trips per week—not one every three days as we were led to believe by this author. Fortunately, after we made our first blog post, the author of the above referenced blog post updated his blog to reflect the fact that these numbers were for round trips. Unfortunately, his blog still claims these trips are being made “every three days.”
It is worth highlighting that there are 16,050 people in Washington County that qualify for this program yet only 198 people used it in October – only 1.2%. Also worth highlighting is that Washington County accounts for only 4.2% of all trip legs and 3.63% of all unique users in the entire eight county metro area.
The author goes on to make two more false claims:
“Only a few common legitimate conditions require every three day Non-Emergent medical transports, that is temporary therapy and in center Hemodialysis.”
“So why are all 231 people who require a tax payer aided ride using it 3 times a week when the known conditions and diseases requiring that frequent of transport are rare and non-debilitating enough to require the need for a ride, let alone a ride that couldn’t be provided for by a spouse, family member, or friend?”
Being as these statements are based on the false premise that people are using this service “every three days” or “three times a week” (in the original post), these statements in their entirety are erroneous. However, we will list the qualifying medical appointments covered under this program and some of the corresponding percentages of overall use of the program in Washington County: day treatment program (30%), counselor-psychologist-social worker (14%), drug rehabilitation (10%), specialist (12%), dialysis (5.5%), primary care physician (5%), psychiatrist (4%), physical therapy (3%), dental services, behavioral health, occupational therapy, pain management, speech therapy, chiropractor, ophthalmologist, radiology services, laboratory services, ob/gyn services, immunizations, podiatry, emergency room-from, optical, cardiac rehabilitation, hospital-inpatient services/admission, hospital–discharge, radiation treatments, mammograms, hospital–outpatient services, chemotherapy, diabetic supplies and education, pediatric services, community psych rehab, court ordered exams or appts, alcohol rehabilitation, transportation to an urgent care facility, prenatal services, transportation from an urgent care facility, prosthetic, physical exam, pharmacy, hearing aids, orthotic shoes, transplant services, education/outreach programs, extended pediatric center, nursing home to nursing home.
As you can see, the list is extensive and certainly involves more than a “few” conditions which might require a user to access this service more than once per week. The author goes on to base his conclusions only on the information he found for dialysis. It turns out that his statement and conclusions, based on dialysis, only reflects the numbers for 5.5% of these trips. How can you come to the conclusion that the numbers are suspicious, when you are only considering 5.5% of the total trips?
The author concludes: “It’s disappointing the County could not provide a breakdown of how many people are using this tax payer funded service every day, every three days, etc. We’re left with more questions than answers due to the lack of transparency and record keeping in our County Government.”
The truth is that the county provided adequate information to give us a good understanding of how this service is being used, including but not limited to the total number of trip legs for all eight metro counties. The total was broken down by the total numbers for each category listed above, along with the percent of all for each category, the total miles for each category and even the average miles. We received more information than we requested!
Being as emails from the county have a confidentiality notification at the bottom, we will not be posting screen shots of emails. It is important to remember that those who seek the truth will search out all information and make as many phone calls, personal visits and emails as necessary to get that information. Patience is a virtue and will often be rewarded.
